Your email password has been passed around by hackers…

What’s the big deal about using the same password on different accounts?  Well,  if you visit this website (yes, it’s legit), you’ll learn a little about why…  Every day, black hat hackers are posting peoples’ email addresses and passwords on the internet.  Yes, every day. 

Do you use the same password on your GMail account as on your banking website?  I hope not.  But, what are the chances that someone would really know, anyway?  I’d say they’re pretty good!  Several times an hour, there is a Twitter account that automatically harvests newly compromised emails and passwords and creates a link that anyone can click on.  If I wanted to, I could have logged into several hundred GMail addresses just today.

I don’t want to scare you, but I do want you to understand why you don’t want to use the same password on multiple accounts.  Hackers know people reuse passwords.  Once one password is out there, chances are, we could use it on your other accounts.

What can you do?

• Take a look at https://haveibeenpwned.com/ See if you account has ever been compromised.  If it has, change your password now and change that same password everywhere else.  Use different passwords.
• Use a different password on every site.  Once you check HaveIBeenPwned, it will be clear why.
• Ask friends for help.  If none of this makes sense, but you’re still worried, keep asking friends until someone explains it and helps you.